Improvement in safety-pockets



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL FRENCH, OF BOSTON, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, AND SIDNEY ALLEN, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEM ENT IN SAFETY.POCKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,731, dated June 24, 1862.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it knownsthat I, SAMUEL FRENCH, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Boston, in the county of Su'olk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful or Improved Safety-Pocket for VearingApparel;v and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specication, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which-n Figure 1 exhibits it in side elevation; Fig. 2, in transverse section. Fig. 3 is a section taken longitudinally through the flexile arm and bolt-actuator.

The nature of my invention consists in the combination of a tlexile arm and bolt-actuator with a pocket and its fastening apparatus,`the whole being substantially as hereinafter explained. Y

In making my said invention I have sought to produce a safety bag or pocket not only pro` vided with a lock or fastening apparatus, but with devices which,while the pocket may be applied to the dress of a persoi'1,shall extend to a distant part of the body or dress of the wearer of the pocket a means of unlocking the mouth of the pocket. The object of these lastnamed devices is to prevent the pocket from being picked or opened by any other person than the wearer. Persons who are in the habit oftraveling in street-railway carriages or omnibuses areliable to have their pockets rif-led or picked; but with my improved pocket it will be difficult, if not impossible, for such to occur.

In the drawings, A exhibits a bag or pocket, which may be constructed either in whole or in part of chain-work or metal wires woven or interlaid together. The jaws a b of the mouth of the pocket I provide with a locking apparatus, which consists of a spring-bolt, c, and a catch, d, applied, respectively, to the jaws. By pressing the said catch inward the bolt will be forced backward until the notch c of the catch may be in a position to permit the springf of the bolt to advance the bolt or shoot it forward into the notch.

From the inner jaw I extend a thin iiexile spring or bar of steel, g, alongside of which I place what I term the i bolt-actuator h. This latter consists of a thin lexile spring or 'bar of metal, which is provided with a knob or button, i, whose shank goes through a slot, la, formed on the flexile bar g.

If, now, We suppose the pocket with t-he bar g to be fastened to the dress of aperson and in a position which will hang the pocket over or near to the upper part of one leg of the individual, the fiexile bar or arm g will extend across the abdomen or up to and partially around the waist. After the pocket under such circumstances may have been closed the means of unlocking it will be situated at the waist of the wearer, and if suoli is known only to him or her, as the case may be, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a robber to pick the pocket or obtain access to its contents. The exile arm and bolt-actuator will bend with and conform themselves to the body of the person while the pocket may be in use.

I claiml The combination of the iiexile arm and boltactuat-or or their equivalent or equivalents with the pocket and its fastening apparatus, the whole being substantially as specified.

SAMUEL FRENCH. Vitnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, J r. 

